May 3, 2016 4:17 PM
It's happened. You've done everything you can to defend your law firm from this day, but the hacker successfully breached your walls. Now, you're faced with encrypted files, lost confidential data, demands for money, the insertion of other forms of malware on your network or, even worse, some combination of these and/or more malicious activities or demands.
What do you do now? Who needs to know? Who are you gonna call?
Topics: Security, Training, Malware, IT Tips, Email Management, whaling, cybersecurity, Hashcat, Passwords, Hacking, phishing, Virus, Antivirus, FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, US-CERT, IC3, Secret Service, PII, Federal Trade Commission, APTs, Cybercrime
April 5, 2016 10:41 AM
Ransomware, in layman’s terms, is designed to extort money from law firms, companies and individuals by holding their data hostage. CryptoLocker (and its variants) is a type of ransomware that infects a computer and seeks out common data files, such as pictures, music, PDFs and Word and Excel documents. It then encrypts those files so the user can’t open them, leaving the victim two choices: pay the cybercriminal or lose the data.
Need an example? Check out what happened to the Town of Discovery Bay, Calif., when its network was compromised by CryptoLocker.
Unfortunately, it only takes one wrong click to become a victim. Thus, ransomware prevention is crucial for law firms of any size holding confidential information. And what law firm isn't?
Download and use our 10 Steps to Ransomware Prevention:
A Checklist for Managing Computer Vulnerabilities to help ensure your law firm can survive a ransomware attack.
Topics: Security, Training, Malware, IT Tips, Webinars, whaling, cybersecurity, Passwords, Ransomware, Hacking, phishing, Virus, Antivirus, Endpoint Protection, APTs
March 30, 2016 7:29 PM
One click. That's all it took. One single click.
All the law firm's data. All of it. Gone. Encrypted. Corrupted. The best you can hope for is that you get
Topics: Security, Training, Malware, IT Tips, Webinars, whaling, cybersecurity, Passwords, Ransomware, Hacking, phishing, Virus, Antivirus, Endpoint Protection, APTs
March 22, 2016 10:01 AM
Along with ransomware, another threat — whaling — has been dominating the news lately. While phishing has been going on for years, whaling is a slight change of direction offering greater monetary rewards for successful hackers.
In our own past experience, a law firm’s bookkeeper received an innocent-looking email from the managing partner requesting that several thousand dollars be paid from a certain account. The email looked legitimate and even came from the managing partner’s email address. But, in reality, it was a spoofed email.
The attacker faked the email address, figured out who the bookkeeper was and sent them an email pretending to be the managing partner. Fortunately, the law firm had a protocol in place for the bookkeeper to contact the controller before authorizing the payment. Had that policy not been in place, the firm would have lost thousands of dollars.
Topics: Security, Malware, IT Tips, whaling, cybersecurity, Ransomware, Hacking, phishing, Endpoint Protection
Comment on this post